1) I grew up in a very small town in Massachusetts with farms and marshes and went to Boston every once in a while, but didn’t really like the city. I went to UVM with a major in Japanese and minor in Asian studies. My junior year of college I studied abroad at Toyo University in Tokyo for 11 months. There I took Japanese classes (reading, speaking/listening, kanji, composition, project making) 5 days a week for three hours. I also took a few English conversation classes where I would talk with students about assigned topics or daily life. I entered the ESS (English Speaking Society) club at my school and would help students practice their English with a native speaker.I graduated in May of 2013.
2) Where do you work? How did you find the job?
I currently work in Tochigi for Peppy Kids Club, a subsidiary company of iTTTi Japan. I have been working here since September 2013. I found the job actually from a list of websites my history teacher (Prof. Esselstrom) sent me of companies he knew past students had worked for. I applied for JET but didn’t get in, so I started searching more towards English Conversation (Eikaiwa) companies. I also wanted to focus on trying to work with children.
3) What was the interview process like? (Please describe in details…everyone will be very curious here!)
I applied online for Peppy Kids by going to their website and entering some information and answering a few questions. I was contacted about a week later by a representative in Canada and, since it was sort of long distance, she emailed me the interview sheet, an application, and a small grammar test. A few days after that she called me again and basically hired me. It all went by very fast; before I really had time to think about it or learn about the company. I went up to Toronto and filled out visa paperwork and got hired.
My visa paperwork actually got stuck at immigration, so I was delayed in my arrival a bit. I came to Japan in August and went to Nagoya to their training center. There is two weeks of training for every native teacher (NT). The first two days are learning about the company and business and the rest are more casual and learning about curriculum and how to teach children. We were placed in an apartment with roommates and given schedules of the two weeks that were very intimidating. Some days were just full of taking notes of learning about the curriculum and things like first aid or dealing with difficult behavior in classes. Other days were split where we would perform demos on a lesson that we would be judged by our trainer and then travel to a real classroom and watch an NT lesson in action. Those second days could be 11 hours long and it was rough. A few days we went into a real classroom and taught a class or two while the home NT watched and judged our lesson. After the two weeks we had final demos and a written test that we had to pass.
4) What was the placement/moving process like?
My company did not pay for the air fare or any cost from traveling to Nagoya, but once we started training they would pay for any work-related travel. They have a set salary application sheet where you write your teaching location and the cost and they will reimburse you on the next paycheck. During training the apartments were “free”, but in fact it was a company loan that you pay off slowly through each paycheck (total about $900). That also includes a futon set for your apartment in your placement (futons are nice on tatami or carpet but are rocks on real bed frames). My apartment is company housing, so the company rents from the apartment realtor and the money just comes out of my paycheck. It’s actually a very new, but small apartment and quite expensive, but the location is great. When I arrived at my apartment my company sent me some basic things like a pot and pan, dishes, a vaccuum, etc. A local NT walked me through the move-in, bringing me to the local office to write my address on my residence card and to a bank so that my paychecks are direct deposit.
I did not ask for this location, I was just randomly placed here. I did ask for some specific locations, but was not placed there. You can apply for relocation after a year, but it’s not always guaranteed.
5) What is it like to work for your company/school in Japan?
My company is very relaxed. You work from anywhere from 5-3 days a week, mostly at night. Since it is a children’s school, they all come after regular school. Most classes don’t start until about 5 or 6 at night. You often work on Saturdays in the morning, but rarely Sundays. I have three different schools in my prefecture that are “my schools” and teach at one each week of the month. (The fourth week is an office week, in which you sit in an empty classroom for 5.5 hours and prep upcoming lessons but really you’re watching movies or sleeping.) How many days a week you teach depends on your schools. Two of my schools are only Thursday-Saturday, so I have office days on Monday-Wednesday. My other school is Monday-Saturday. Sometimes on office days you’re asked to cover for someone who is sick, so you could be sent across the prefecture at a moment’s notice. I covered twice in a different prefecture last week.
I teach mostly 3 or 4 classes a day, so work days are really short. I get kind of crazy sitting around all day waiting for work to start. Classes have anywhere from 1-13 kids. Our company has different levels of classes and each with a different textbook and curriculum you have to learn. Kids are anywhere from 4-17. There’s also a class for moms and their babies to come in and you teach the mothers English to use at home.
Classes are an hour long and you go through the textbook and use CDs to teach songs and chants and stuff. You “must” use English in the classroom, but I use Japanese from time to time. I couldn’t imagine not knowing Japanese in this job since sometimes kids just talk to you about anything and everything in Japanese. Work attire is super casual; you have to wear jeans or pants and have tattoos or scandalous areas covered, but that’s about it.
Other random company things I can think of are that for your first 2 months of working you need to call and check in at your classrooms at least an hour before classes start. Punctuality is very important in Japan! Also every office day you must call in and see if they need you to cover. Also about once a month there’s a meeting with all the native teachers and the local supervisor and you go over company numbers and new policies and all that business stuff and sometimes do demos of lessons.
6) What is it like to work with the Japanese?
I don’t really see Japanese professionals in my job too much. Each school has a Japanese teacher that teaches the 3/4 weeks at the school that you don’t teach. Two of my schools have brand new teachers so I’m just getting to know them. We speak in English and Japanese. They’re really super nice about wanting to hang out with me outside of school (they’re both younger women). We just had a big combined meeting of all the Japanese teachers and native teachers and that was the first time I met one of my school’s JTs. They’re all really nice.
Working with Japanese kids is another thing. Their parents are kind of tough and expect a lot from them. After each lesson you need to show the parents what the kids learned by asking the kids questions…but sometimes it doesn’t seem like enough and I don’t really know what the parents want. The kids are like normal kids; you get quiet ones, genki ones, class clowns. The big thing is the language barrier, but you can get around it if you try.
7) Tips for those who are going to teach in Japan or have Japan-related jobs after graduating from UVM:
Just be confident in what you do and try to enjoy it! You’ll definitely have some sort of culture shock or home sickness (even though I didn’t during study abroad, I do now) but just distract yourself and try new things.
Just look around and I’m sure you’ll find something… if you want to teach English. There’s plenty of companies that will help you get to Japan easily, but decide if it’s really what you want to do or if it’s okay in the short term.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or anything! I’d be happy to help in any way I can. You can message me on Facebook (Molly Thurlow) or by email (mjthurlow@gmail.com).
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